OurAncient Landscapes project will be there among the Birds, Beasts, Bugs
and Botanicals. We'll be there with fossils to look at and draw, models to
handle, people to talk to, a wall to stare at (just in case we can find
anything!) and our usual exciting, messy, colourful and engaging creative activities

I'll be there helping on the Landscapes stall but mostly to
tell stories of farms and fields and the plants and animals and stranger
inhabitants of the Dales and Moorlands

Tempting as it is, we won't be "fossilizing
fathers" but we may well invite you to look at some of the fossils we find
in the limestone of the area, to make printed fossil cards for Dads, cast your
own fossils (for anyone), make trilobite puppets and personal nautiloids….

Our activities are free but car parking charges apply.
There are lots of other activities on at Ilam that day - but come and hunt us
out!

Saturday, 25 May 2013

The official details of this year's Burrenbeo conference are pasted in below. I was at last year's event and it was rich and delightful. Good company, a wonderful setting and lots of thought-provoking sessions. so if you fancy a trip out to the west of ireland and the spectacular limestone landscapes of the Burren in July...sign up!

Place-based Learning – building a network?

Kinvara July 18th-20th 2013.

Building on the success of the inaugural Learning
Landscape Symposium Apathy to Empathy – reconnecting
people with place in 2012, the Burrenbeo Trust are
hosting an intimate networking event this year for place-based educators,
teachers, parents and anyone with an interest in place-based learning and/or
learning in the Burren.

This event aims to:

•provide a unique opportunity to network with
other place-based educators from Ireland and beyond, exchange ideas and
experiences

•hear from some leading practitioners both
nationally and internationally

This event will feature interactive workshops in
community venues in Kinvara village as well as field trips to the Burren,
cultural events and much more. It will start on the evening on the
18th, the
workshops will be throughout the 19th,
and there is an optional fieldtrip on the 20th.

Bookings are now open by contacting trust@burrenbeo.com and 091 638096 or
downloading the attach form and sending it back. Places are strictly
limited and bookings will be on a first come first served basis.

The full programme will be released shortly; keep an
eye on www.burrenbeo.com for more
information.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

celebrating the Year of Natural Scotland here are old stories, new adventures and impossible fictions about the wildlife of Scotland

From heroic mice to wrens, eagles and mysterious trees we’ll meet stories that encourage us to look with new eyes on the world around us and remember that there are stories inside the humblest of creatures and the most ordinary of plants, and that we can all have adventures too

I am Gordon MacLellan – Creeping Toad – is one of Britain’s foremost environmental art and education workers…and I tell stories as well!

Between 2nd and 13th September, 2013 (and probably again in November), I will be working in the Highland area (at least) and is available for bookings….

A day’s visit to your school - or your nature reserve or education centre - might include

storytelling performances: lasting up to 60 minutes for up to 90 children at a time

stories outside! using the school ground, we’ll take storymaking out of the classroom and use the immediate environment, the day’s weather and whatever we can find to inspire words, create poems and shape a set of stories never told before (allow 60 minutes for a class session)

story and book workshops:taking a bit longer (allow 90 minutes for a class) as well as discovering those stories no-one has ever heard before, now we will build those into the books that no-one has ever read before and leave the classroom with a library no-one has ever visited before!

pop-up storyscapes:allow an hour for a class: gathering ideas, images and words we’ll make quick 3-d landscapes holding the essence of a story in a setting, key characters and the words that set the adventure running

tales of old Scotland: a collection of stories of Highland folklore and Scottish histories, of heroes and sorrows, bravery and the magics of sea, mountain and moor

I rather hope this isn't one of the heroes of old Scotland!

your own themes and ideas: or are you exploring a particular theme that you would like to involve some stories in? pirates….tropical islands….ancient cave people…..where in our school would bears live?…castle adventures, have all featured in recent Creeping Toad projects

Charges: £250 a day: includes storyteller’s fee, travel and materials. Can be paid on the day or I can invoice you